Greetings, fellow sentient beings!
I think this is my first dedicated post in the LeoFinance community, although I have commented on quite a few.
It's going to be a long intro, of myself mostly, so you can skip this part
I have not often written of finances or anything economy related because that is not my background. But coming here for other reasons, I have found lots of new interests and new knowledge. Most importantly, economics has become more and more attractive a topic.
As they say in "The Big Short", a movie I believe everyone around here shall do good to watch since it's almost a documentary of a quite relative recent past, money talk is mostly taboo, mostly considered boring, and ironically — one of the most important things that people as a whole still turn their attention away from. After all, it only runs human society.
Being a curious mind in general, and yes, natural sciences, exploration of the wilderness, etc., have been my dreams since childhood, I am now also really curious about economics and how it shapes the world.
After all, I turned to humanitarian sciences in my university years, I ended up with master degrees in Social Psychology and in Printed Media (and that because of my love for photography)...
...Meanwhile the topic of economics has been intertwined into my most favorite hobbies and interests.
Role Playing and other games — a plausible economy makes them feel realistic.
Fiction Reads — it gives credibility to imaginary worlds.
It is the core of many of those worlds and the authors' reasons for coming up with many of their works. My favorite works of literary art. Highly speculative and logical. Like evolution. Like the free market.
When talking on the topic, I mostly tend to refer to Asimov and Gibson, one of them writing the fall of an empire into existence, the other — popularizing a genre that has a lot to do with what we're living today and what we can imagine unfold.
And it's a dark socioeconomic setting.
Pure philosophy aside...
I have taken it for a serious task to educate myself and act as an educated one in the field of economics, at least from now on. It has been almost a brag from a romantic point of view that I am just an artist (meaning photographer) and a bad trader but that is not a good claim to stick to for the rest of my productive days...I mean...centuries...of course I shall be productive for many centuries to come.
And I got to learn that I, and everybody willing to be responsible for their personal financial status, need to be able to discern assets from liabilities. For things that we consider assets might sometimes be the opposite.
And here I am to share some thoughts on things that could have been assets if handled...otherwise.
I used to consider all my photography equipment an asset. But it is only such when being actively used to produce value. Suddenly, the lighting system that lies in boxes for months is an asset no more. Neither is fish-eye lens that is sitting in a cupboard for more than a year now.
See how the time aspect sneaked in?
A long period when they do not pay off plus the problem that, even easily and safely stored, they suffer some aging and hence possible loss of qualities. Photographic equipment is expensive but some of the material of its pieces...like its plastic...age pretty badly pretty fast, sometimes even faster when not in use.
If I could be lending them...now that would change things. And I would if I knew of a good way to do so. Looking for one.
That brings me to the class that everybody seems to mention when the term Assets is mentioned. Real Estate.
The one we live in, ours or rented, is a liability. Something in need of maintenance with no pay off in terms of fresh income. There's only the aspect of how we feel there and how it affects our performance but that's a long shot.
And here we come to properties — what they are where I live.
I'm in Eastern Europe. In Bulgaria, now the poorest country in the EU, formerly...a socialist block member. In transition for the past 31 years. I wonder how many more years would have been required for things to run its natural course and for the transition to be complete.
Transitions are never complete, though, not without a turn in another direction.
Anyway, so far we've had decades of late urbanization. But running in full force. Leaving properties and assets of the past to crumble into dust.
What is scarce in some parts of the world has been neglected here and left with no human power to tend for it. Let's say that land outside of most villages is still rented and worked by big players...There are still huge numbers of parcels that are by law owned by somebody, practically abandoned and not used by anybody but the crows, and by the bugs, and by the...you get it.
Lots of up until recently inhabited houses and tilled gardens that somebody still has access to. But such that nobody lives in anymore. By some European standards, those are relatively large plots. And fertile.
When there was life there, their value was real, they were active.
Properties without people in them are going to waste.
And at the same time we say the world's overpopulated. Not the world but certain areas are. Location is the greatest factor, indeed. I wonder for how much longer.
I like to compare the human world to the world of particles and energy where physical laws apply. When there's much pressure somewhere and there's empty space somewhere else...some of that energy, some mass, some people should shift from place one to the other. Naturally.
The question is how long it would take in the case of humans. is it still worth hodling to liabilities which could turn into assets? It seems more and more so as of late. The time may be ripe for action to be taken. And the knowledge of such things might have come just in time.
To make it clear...
I was here writing about properties owned but unattended and about equipment owned but not used frequently. And I shall be looking for ways to change that because it seems the prudent thing to do.
How about you?
What assets can you think of that you could put to better use?
I am asking about physical assets, not virtual, but here comes my next question...
Blockchainwise...
...my little experiment and experience with owning virtual NFT assets in the Hive blockchain dCity game is currently comparable to owning a real estate in the capital of Bulgaria in terms of income that I would have received as rent income. It might feel more risky and volatile but who knows where the wind blows next...
And I know there are many other such potential assets related to the blockchain technology.
Care to share any that you are familiar with?
One of the higher floors of a deserted mansion-like building (although probably a school at some point in time judging from the blackboard in this room) in a village a bicycle ride away from Kraiowa, Romania. The distortion is due to the fish-eye lens I used.
Thanks for coming with me aboard this train of thought!
Live long and prosper!
Yours,
Manol